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Weber selected as sustainability manager

Posted September 21, 2006; 05:46 p.m.

by Ruth Stevens

Shana Weber has been named to the newly created position of sustainability manager in the University's facilities department.

Weber served as a faculty member and as director for campus and
community programs at Santa Clara University's Environmental Studies
Institute from 2002 to 2005. She has been co-producer and contributing
science editor since 2005 for "EcoTalk," a nationally syndicated
interview format radio program dedicated to environmental
sustainability.

At Princeton, she will be responsible for helping the University as a
whole to improve its environmental performance and to facilitate its
emergence as a leading example of sustainability among institutions of
higher education. She will work with students, faculty and staff to
diminish the University's ecological footprint by coordinating
improvements in energy efficiency, reductions in greenhouse gas
emissions and waste, supporting local businesses, improving public
awareness of University sustainability efforts, encouraging creative
collaboration and dialogue, developing University-wide policies and
engaging the University community in the national sustainability
discussion.

Among her duties will be serving as liaison to the Princeton
Sustainability Committee (formerly the Princeton Environmental
Oversight Committee), a group of students, faculty and staff charged
since 2002 with monitoring the University's relationship with the
environment.

"The University has many different environmental issues that need a
champion and coordinator to implement solutions," said Tom Nyquist,
director of engineering in the facilities department, to whom Weber
reports. "Shana is the right person at the right time for this work."

Weber earned a bachelor's degree in zoology from Ohio State University,
a master's degree in cultural studies from Holy Names College and a
Ph.D. in environmental science from Indiana University. She has taught
environmental science courses at both Indiana University and Santa
Clara University.

An ecologist and avid photographer, Weber has participated in
educational and scientific expeditions to Brazil, Ecuador and the
Galápagos, Costa Rica, Baja Mexico, Alaska and the American West. She
recently began studying the American pika in the mountains of Nevada
and Montana. This smallest member of the rabbit family, which lives
above the tree line on rocky slopes, appears to be suffering population
decline in certain areas due to global warming.

Weber's new position was made possible with support from Bert Kerstetter, a 1966 Princeton alumnus.